Brands comments on Kean, Gbamin, Iwobi, Sidibe, Delph, Lossl, Gomes

During the summer transfer window, more than once we heard from Everton fans that they would love to hear from Director of Football Marcel Brands and his methodology as he’s gone about in the last three windows rebuilding the Toffees squad.

In an exclusive interview with evertontv that was published on the club website today, everyone’s wishes have now come true. The Dutchman has lifted the lid on all of Everton’s summer transfer activity, explaining how the club went about signing a number of players that were added to Marco Silva’s squad this summer. Excerpts from the interview are transcribed below, click here and sign up to watch this and more videos.

On Moise Kean -

“That process goes on for months, it’s not something you do in one summer. We spoke about a possible loan in winter, to bring him in in the first of the year. In the end that was not possible and he started playing at Juventus.

“I think his profile fits in the Premier League. Sometimes I would look at the results for Juventus and see that he scored, then he made his debut for the national team, and we thought this could be difficult.

“It’s important you keep going for your plans, and you let the player also know that you are really convinced about his qualities and that he is the right fit for this club. He’s young, we have to give him time but I am really confident he will have a good future here.”

On Jean-Philippe Gbamin -

“I know him from my PSV Eindhoven time, I tried to get him a couple of years ago when he ended up going to Mainz 05.

“From the moment we saw it was possible for Idrissa Gueye to go to Paris St Germain, we proceeded to him because he was on our list. It was not an easy deal because there was other interest in him.”

On how to predict success in England for players abroad -

“It’s one of the most difficult things. We try to look at the profile, the physicality, we do a lot of research behind the games we watch. Scouts get the reports, I watch them by myself, and then we go through all the stats and then we see if he can fit in the Premier League.

“It’s a big process, and we go through a lot of studies before we decide he is one of those that we can get on our list, and then we look if it’s possible financially of course.

“There’s a lot of work before that, we make a big file on each player, and look at the character of the player and if he will fit in the environment we have here.”

Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images

On Alex Iwobi -

“It was not an easy one [transfer]. A young boy who has played a lot of games in the Premier League, and the Europa League and the Champions League, but in our eyes a boy that can play in different positions.

“In our team we do not have much competition for Gylfi Sigurdsson, but we have managed that now with Alex.

“The most important thing is he has goals and assists in his game and that is something we were looking for.”

On Djibril Sidibe -

“After we found a very good loan for Jonjoe Kenny, because I had promised him we would find a solution for him, he needs to play as much as possible.

“We wanted to find a replacement to give some competition for Seamus Coleman, and only looking for a loan because we don’t want to bring in a permanent deal in that position because we want to see the development of Jonjoe.”

On Fabian Delph -

“We started a couple of months ago with speaking to Manchester City about him. The only thing was we did not want to spend too much money on a 29-year-old player, so that gave me some tough negotiations, but in the end we made a good deal.

“He brings some character and leadership that we could use in the dressing room and on the pitch. After speaking with him on the plans for this club, he got very excited.

“We went to his home and had prepared a short video to show him how he could fit in at Everton, and after that his agent called us to say the player was very excited.”

On the presentation packages showed to transfer targets -

“We always prepare that [videos] to show players what we think about them, why we think he could fit, what kind of club he will come to, what are the plans for the club and his position.

“Sometimes only the small things can help to find a deal, and this was one of them.”

Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

On Jonas Lossl -

“Joao Virginia had a great development for the Under-23s, so we were looking for the next step for him, and we needed another goalkeeper.

“Lossl was our number one target, free transfer, good age, can give good competition to the two goalkeepers we have already. Different ages, 25, 30 and 36, and we have a very talented young boy playing in Reading now so we are happy with that.

“Marco Silva is very pleased with the three goalkeepers that we have now.”

On Andre Gomes -

“I have to be honest, the biggest help in that was our fans. They loved him from the first day and that gave Andre a great feeling here in this club.

“That helped me a lot in the negotiations I had with Barcelona because there was interest in him from other clubs in England.

“When Andre decided he wanted to go to Everton that helped me a lot in the negotiations with Barcelona. That was a great job the fans did for me.

“In this case the fans gave him such a beautiful and amazing welcome that he felt at home from day one.

”It helped me a lot.”

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